1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of testing hardware devices in a system on a multi-operating system (multi-OS) platform, and more particularly, to a method of performing integrated tests on a file system and an underlying hardware and disk performance of a disk device on a multi-OS platform in a computer which has an Extended Firmware Interface (EFI) system environment.
2. Related Art
At present, when a system tester performs a diagnostic test on a hardware device such as a disk, for different OS test platforms such as Windows, Linux, or Dos, the test focuses on a different aspect to each OS platform because of the differences of the OSes. As the security level of the Windows system is higher and higher, it is difficult to perform underlying hardware functional tests for all hardware devices in the Windows system environment. Therefore, in the Windows system environment, the tester inclines to place the test focus on applications and performance such as the File System test and the Central Processing Unit (CPU) utilization test. In addition, Linux, Dos and EFI systems are a kind of new micro OS platform, which intends to replace the existing Basic. Input Output System (BIOS, which can be used to realize an initialization and relevant configuration of the system hardware) platform to realize the startup and boot of the OS. Moreover, the EFI also provides improved and more comprehensive functions than the conventional BIOS does, as the EFI is equivalent to a mini OS, and features similar hardware openness as the Linux system (a free multi-user OS that can run in a normal personal computer). Because the EFI and BIOS are at a same level, the EFI is closer to the hardware layer, through which the tester can completely control the hardware such as the disk, and perform functional tests of hardware level. Besides, as the EFI supports the C/C++ programming language, the tester can easily complete more tests on the underlying hardware functions through an EFI shell program (an EFI shell program relates to an interface program provided by the EFI for communication with an external operator). At the same time, through compiling programs, the tester can also load various OSes and enter corresponding system environments to complete different system test processes and test functions for logic testing in the EFI environment. Because the system environment has better hardware openness, the tester can do more underlying functional tests for the hardware. Aiming at different characteristics of different OSes, the tester needs to continually reboot the computer equipment to respectively enter different OSes and do tests, which increases the complexity of the tests and the workload of the tester, and extends the test time. Furthermore, because the test focus in every OS platform is not totally the same, if the tests are done in only one OS environment, the coverage rate of the tests may be not large enough, so the hardware cannot be tested comprehensively and completely, reducing the accuracy of the test result.